sps lighting
 

Ive spent the last few days finally setting up my 4x2x2 120 gallon and today im filling it up , ive got all my equipment but lights . Ive seen a few 6 bulb ati t5s for sale and I wonder if a 6 bulb fixture is enough for a full blown sps reef or if its just not going to be enough ? So what are folks using on there sps reefs?

I use an 8 light fixture, and not sure I'd try a 6. But I like a lot of light. Probably depends more on the layout and where the corals are located though. I'm sure there are SPS tanks with 6 bulb fixtures.
That being said, I wish these came in 10 bulb :)

I think that if the SPS corals were very high up in the tank, 6 bulbs would be okay. I'd recommend 8 though.

6 bulb with good reflector is perfectly fine to grow anything in an SPS tank. But height and width should be considered. I have acros from middle to top (top being 12"+ distance between the light and the location of the coral) and montis from low to top and things color up and grow just fine. But I believe the water parameter and the aquascaping also plays their fair share of role. Ofcourse in case of T5s, the more the better. But 6 bulb is perfectly fine as long as your width and height is within 20". But since yours is 24", I would say go for 8 bulbs ATI.

Happy with my 8 bulb ATI powermodule.

Or get yourself some leds and save your self the few hundred dollars every 6 months. I had leds before and am currently running T5 now, and man do I miss my leds every day. Not a big fan of the T5. Iv noticed colours don't pop like they used to. If you do go T5 my 6 bulb fixture grows all my sps just fine so you would be fine with 6. Just not as visually appealing. Just my opinion.

With your tank being 2' deep I'd think you'll need an 8 bulb fixture, plus the width of 2' will be hard to cover with a 6 bulb unit
I use an 8 bulb unit on a tank 19 tall and 18 deep

I love my 8 bulb T5 and wouldn't trade it for anything else currently available, unless I were to fall into possesion of some dimmable ballasts

I only change my bulbs every 12 months, not 6, or 9, and I spread out the changes throughout the year to not only offset the costs but to not shock the tank

Well thanks for all the input looks like an 8 bulb fixture is going to be in my future , I really want this to be a tank that thrives and looks good and skimping on the lights isn't going to get me anywhere .So anyone have an extra 8 bulb ati fixture for sale?

Brand new, used price. He might ship

http://www.usedvictoria.com/classifi...-bulb_21555983

Thanks for the link that's perfect.